


it will come back

by HeartonFire



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Feelings, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 17:43:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15890916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: Frank keeps showing up on Karen's fire escape after fights, bloody and battered. She lets him in, stitches him up, and he leaves again. Rinse and repeat.Karen has had enough.





	it will come back

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little one-shot that popped into my head while I was listening to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMhZ18EmlFA) by Hozier. It's a song that always makes me think of Karen and Frank and their relationship, and I just needed to get this out there before I finish [i'll fight their doubt and give you faith](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15289902).
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back at work on some new stuff soon.

The first time Frank showed up at Karen’s apartment, he was bleeding. Second and third and fourth time, too, for that matter.

And he could never just use the front door, like a regular person. She supposed he wasn’t exactly a regular person, but still. It would be nice to use the buzzer and let him come in, instead of trying to wrestle his bruised and battered body through her window from the fire escape.

She took to keeping an extensive first aid kit handy, for just these occasions. Learned to stitch him up, let him crash on the couch. He refused to take her bed, even when he was recovering from wounds that should have killed him.

Every time, in the morning, he was gone. Nothing but a note in his scrawled handwriting to show he had been there. Sometimes a bloody fingerprint on the counter. A drop of blood in the sink.

And then, weeks later, he’d reappear.

Finally, Karen had enough.

The seventh time Frank showed up on the fire escape, she helped him sew up the latest stab wound on his arm before he stripped off his shirt to reveal his bloody chest.

Karen breathed through her nose and focused on the task at hand. Focused on stopping the bleeding. Frank was braced against her sink, leaving pink handprints behind when he moved. He always cleaned up after himself, but this was ridiculous.

“Frank,” she said, and he looked up at her. His brown eyes were tired, worn down, and she wondered for a second if this was the right time to do this. But then she looked down at her hands. Frank’s blood. If not now, when? “What are we doing?”

He blinked at her, like he didn’t understand what she was asking.

“Why do you always come to me?” She knew about his friend Curtis, who would probably do a much better job sewing him up. His friend David would probably be a decent choice too. Anyone but her.

“What?” he said, voice rough with something she couldn’t name.

“Why do you come here when you’re hurt like this? You show up, we get you cleaned up, you sleep, or maybe you don’t, you leave. Rinse and repeat. Why?”

His eyes were wide now, thoughtful. “Why?”

“Yes, Frank. Why do you do this?”

“I’m sorry, Karen.” He slid away from her, towards the door. “I’ll go. You’re right. It’s not safe.”

“Wait.” He stopped. The light from her kitchen lit up his silhouette. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean?” he said slowly. He turned to look at her, face in shadow.

“Just, you keep coming here, but it doesn’t make sense. Why me?”

A ghost of a smile crossed his bruised face. “You let me come in.”

“What?” Karen said. She stepped towards him and he shook his head.

“You let me in that first time, and it was a good way to make sure you were okay.”

“Make sure I’m okay?” she said incredulously. “You’re the one showing up bleeding every time I see you.”

“Then stop letting me in.”

He was being intentionally difficult, eyes glinting in the dim light. “Fine. Maybe I will.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She wouldn’t. She knew it and he knew it. She would keep letting him in any time he knocked on the window. She would keep stitching him up and letting him stay.

“Okay, ma’am.”

“That’s it?”

He shrugged, like it didn’t matter. “Sure. You stop letting me in, I’m going to have to find somewhere else to go.”

Somehow, she had ended up right in front of him. He was staring straight through her with those deep eyes that had always held her attention.

“So, if someone else had let you in, you’d be there now?”

He shook his head. “No. If you hadn’t, I’d be somewhere else now.”

Frank’s hands twitched at his sides and he clenched them into fists. Karen considered him for a long moment.

“You chose me?”

“And you let me.”

“Then what are we doing?”

“You tell me, ma’am.”

Karen let out a groan of frustration and Frank’s smile solidified across his face. He lifted his hands to graze her ribcage and she shivered.

“Frank,” she breathed.

He nudged her closer. “There you go again. Letting me in.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Comments and kudos are always appreciated. :)


End file.
